Social media is emerging from its adolescent phase and is rapidly maturing. Facebook , Twitter, Google+, YouTube and the fast emerging Pinterest have all been embraced by the top companies as they find ways to leverage their brands globally.

Recently discovered in a McKinsey Global Inst Report “The Social Economy: Unlocking Value And Productivity Through Social Technologies” , Statista's Chart 'The Rapid Rise Of Social Media' shows how the pace of technological progress has changed over the past century and the time it took selected technologies and services to reach 50 million users worldwide.

It took the radio 38 years to reach 50 million users worldwide. The next revolution came around a little quicker: 13 years passed until 50 million people enjoyed moving images in their own homes.

With the arrival of the internet the pace of technological adoption really picked up: while it still took internet service providers three years to reach 50 million subscribers, the world wide web dramatically enlarged the potential audience for everyone with an innovative product or service.

Facebook, now on track to reach 1 billion users, needed just one year to reach 50 million users and Twitter was even quicker to reach that milestone.

Social media is emerging from its adolescent phase and is rapidly maturing. Facebook , Twitter, Google+, YouTube and the fast emerging Pinterest have all been embraced by the top companies as they find ways to leverage their brands globally.

Robin Good: If you are looking for great examples of Facebook marketing at work, you may want to check the Facebook Studio, an official gallery/catalog of marketing campaigns using FB.

"...a place where creative agencies and marketers can deposit examples of great campaigns that leverages on the online social network to connect with audiences and have authentic conversations.

So far Facebook Studio has over 750 examples submitted and approved from around the world, and Facebook also holds the Facebook Studio Awards every year to recognize and laud the best work in the field.

Agencies can create an online profile on Facebook Studio that shows off their creative digital work, along with any of the awards accorded by Facebook.

These profiles go into a directory which is searchable and accessible, so you can preview the work.

Creatives who have worked on those projects or campaigns can be “tagged”, so people know who’s been involved in them. Creative individuals can also build their own profiles – which is separate from their regular Facebook profile (although they can be linked) – so that they can be tied to the work they’re involved in."

Mobile has blown up–in large part to the fact that more than 50 percent of the U.S. population now owns a smart phone and the tablet market has completely took off since the iPad burst on the scene in 2010....

So, what if you want to get smarter about mobile? Where do you turn? That was my question a couple weeks ago. I even asked someone who I would consider a mobile expert, Aaron Strout, where he would look. He was kind enough to point me in a few spots. Below is a short list of 10 go-to mobile resources for you to source to starting learning more about this evolving–and important–discipline in our field...

94 percent of corporate businesses use social media, while 85 percent say that it’s given their business more exposure. The infographic below shows how and why businesses are blogging and going social.

Key takeaways:

- 94% of businesses use social media- 85% say it’s given their business more exposure- 92% says their favorite social media tool is Facebook- 23% of 2011 Fortune 500 companies maintain a blog

You've probably been hearing more about agile marketing lately. Over the past 6 months, there has been a blossoming Renaissance of discussions, writings, and events on the subject — a number of which I summed up in a recent Search...

This piece is from Socialmouths, here are some interesting findings from Coupon Cabin's infographic:

Jan Gordon:

Nothing is written in stone, the research says younger people are more inclined to follow recommendations about products or services from their friends than people over 55. I personally think that is changing as social communities evolve.

Excerpt:

"we keep trying to close the gap between discovery and recommendation through Social Media and actual sales.

**Are Likes eventually turning into Buys?

Here's one highlight that caught my attention:

The reason social media users are following brands divided by gender –

**The study by Burst Media says the #1 reason is to keep up with content. In my opinion, people follow a brand to get something in exchange, a discount or special deals. I might check out a brand to learn something about it but that doesn’t mean I will “follow” that brand.

18% of social media are influenced by friends behavior – This is what we have talking about to small business, look at social media as a discovery and recommendation engine. This is the core of Earned Media.

**People are influenced by their friends much more than by any advertising.

**The “Age Factor” –

**Individuals under 35 are more likely to be influenced by their friends behavior than a 55 year-old

**There are a lot of elements to play with here but it’s basically just human nature, younger people rely more on others opinions than a 55 year-old.

**Which doesn’t mean you should ignore this, it is very important that you consider these things when approaching your audience.

Selected by Jan Gordon covering "Curation, Social Business and Beyond"

I selected this because as Robin Good says, it works better than Twitter lists and anything that helps manage, discover and utilize people, content, news in a more efficient way is something I need and want to share with others. Thank you Robin for another great find!

Robin Good: Slices is a news discovery app that allows you to find the news that interest you by "slicing" the Twitter timeline into topic-specific categories, making it much easier to find what you are looking for.

From Pandodaily official review: "Slices offers 21 searchable categories – humor, technology, sports, and so on – that lead you to people and lists to follow. Included among those top-level categories is the “Live Events” option, which allows you to select an event – a football match, say, or a TV show – and follow Tweets from a curated list.

Also of note: "...it synchronizes between mobile devices and the Slices website (slices.me), which means it knows which Tweets you’ve already read, no matter where you access it from.

...The “Timeline Slicer” also outdoes Twitter’s Lists as a way to organize the people you follow into specific categories. They’re easier to set up and easier to access, ..."

Photography is experiencing a revolution. Sites such as Pinterest and Instagram are allowing us to share this visual art form in glorious color, creativity and ease just by pinning images with a couple of clicks.

Giuseppe Mauriello: Rewindy is the first visual story-sharing service. Create, personalize and share life events like travel, family or hobby events. You can share the story privately to a few friends using email or more publicly using Facebook or Twitter.

From Rewindy Blog:

"The photo doesn’t often capture the thoughts or feelings of the people in the event. This is why people love stories. A story is a narrative you can relate to and it highlights thoughts, emotions, relationships and can freely go into history or speculate about the future.

Things that are at extremely difficult with photos. A photo on the other hand creates a very detailed picture of a person, scene or object in the viewers mind.

The combination of these two the photos and the story is a visual story. Bringing together the context and narrative what happened behind the photos, with the best visual images. A visual story is a much more personal and expressive way to share your photos, or a visually beautiful way to share your story..."

Sharing your scoops to your social media accounts is a must to distribute your curated content. Not only will it drive traffic and leads through your content, but it will help show your expertise with your followers.

Integrating your curated content to your website or blog will allow you to increase your website visitors’ engagement, boost SEO and acquire new visitors. By redirecting your social media traffic to your website, Scoop.it will also help you generate more qualified traffic and leads from your curation work.

Distributing your curated content through a newsletter is a great way to nurture and engage your email subscribers will developing your traffic and visibility.
Creating engaging newsletters with your curated content is really easy.